Wednesday 22 September 2021

Dungeons in Karameikos

 One thing I have noticed while going through Gaz1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos is that while there is information about the society, laws, regions, armed forces and towns, there are only a few dungeons and ruins marked out on the map, namely:

  • Krakatos - a ruined walled village mentioned in "The Song of King Halav". 
  • Koriszegy Keep - a ruined keep haunted by a cursed vampire. This keep is mapped out, with 8 encounter areas. 

There are 2 possible conclusions:

  1. The designers of the gazetteer do not envision dungeons and ruins to play a significant part in campaigns and adventures in the Grand Duchy. 
  2. The designers have left it up to each dungeon master to place dungeons as they see fit and so the map is a proverbial white canvas or blank slate for the DM to place dungeons and the like as and where they wish. 

I am going with the second conclusion..

Going back through Mentzer's Expert set, the map of the Known World beyond the Grand Duchy has suggested places for the placement of published B/X modules. 

B1: In Search of the Unknown is set west of Threshold near the banks of the Achelos River near a dwarf camp called Grulven's Prospect. My notes on it are here.

B2: The Keep on the Borderlands is set northeast of Penhaligon, along the Castellan River where Castellan Keep is. The Gazetteer confirms this in its brief entry for Castellan Keep. My notes on it are here.

B3: Palace of the Silver Princess is in the realm of Haven, east of Penhaligon and at the source of the Rugalov river. The Gazetteer confirms this in its brief entry on Haven. However, the original orange-cover printing set it on the borders of Glantri. This is discussed in this post 

B4: The Lost City is set in the desert of the Emirate of Ylaruam, north-east of Karameikos

B5: The Horror on the Hill was released after the Mentzer Expert set so does not appear on that particular map but I have placed Guido's Fort and the Hill upstream of Penhaligon

B6: The Veiled Society is still set in Specularum. 

B7: Rahasia was published after the Mentzer Expert set but I have placed it west of the elven village of Rifllian.  

B9: Castle Caldwell and Beyond consists of several different adventures each with their own location. 
The titular Castle Caldwell is now near Guido's Fort, upstream of Penhaligon. 
Elwynn's Sanctuary is now placed northwest of Rifllian
The Great Escape is now on the borders of the Black Eagle Barony

X1: The Isle of Dread is set far to the south, beyond the Kingdom of Ierendi and Minrothad Guilds. 

X2: Castle Amber is set in the Principalities of Glantri

X3: Curse of Xanathon is set in the Kingdom of Vestland, beyond Karameikos, to the north-east of Ylaruam. 

X4: Master of the Desert Nomads and X5: Temple of Death are set far to the west beyond the Five Shires and Atruaghin Clans. 

X6: Quagmire is still far from Karameikos on the Serpent Peninsula though I have suggested some changes

At the moment I am quite happy to keep these adventure locations as they are. I am considering changing the details of Krakatos but not just yet. Koriszegy Keep is discussed in this post. The descriptions in the gazetteer are not the whole story but merely what folks of Karameikos know and can tell the PCs. 

There is no officially published megadungeon for Karameikos. B1, B2 and B3 all have multi-level dungeons but none of these are extensive enough to meet the generally agreed definition that a megadungeon should be able to host an entire campaign - something similar in size to Castle Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms' Undermountain. This is an absence I intend to correct with new locations such as Tarrag Duun

See also my shorter dungeons set in Karameikos: 

Scenario #4: Lair of the Twisted Summoner

Logos Location #4: Kamroth's Cairn


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